The present invention relates to a towing vehicle with a front axle carrying at least one wheel and a rear axle, the wheels of which are steerable and driveably connected to the vehicle driving means, coupling means carried by the vehicle frame and implemented to provide substantially rigid interconnection of the vehicle frame and an object to be towed, and lifting means adapted to allow lifting of the front wheels from the ground or substructure when the coupling means is in engagement with the object to be towed.
Towing vehicles of this kind are intended, inter alia, for moving containers, or trailers etc. in terminus areas. The principles for the type of container handling intended here are well known and appear from the Swedish Pat. No. 7808448-0, for example. Swedish Pat. No. 7808448-0 and International application publication No. 83-03590, are incorporated here by reference. The occurrence of ramps having different slopes and configurations causes special problems in this container handling environment, however.
One of these problems is the risk that the towing vehicle, when transporting an empty and therefore comparatively light container down a ramp, will tip forward so that the front wheels impact against the substructure during emergency braking. Should this happen, there also occurs a heavy and uncontrollable vertical jerk of the empty container, until the forward edge reaches the ground, which can result in personal injury and material damage.
A problem of the same character also occurs in emergency braking, if the respective driving wheels brake on substructure with different coefficients of friction, or if braking occurs during a turn. One of the wheels may just be passing through an oil slick, for example. The result here will also be a heavy and uncontrollable jerk by the empty container, this time laterally.